If we want jobs, try historic preservation

In his “State of the State” address last week, Governor Freudenthal called on the legislature to provide more funds for new school construction, stating that it was “about the only thing that is going to generate jobs in this state for construction.” Unfortunately, the governor and other state officials do not seem to be aware of the fact that new construction generates far fewer jobs than rehabilitation of existing buildings. In our haste to build new schools, we have not only destroyed some treasured community landmarks – we have also lost an opportunity to create many more new jobs than with new construction, and have needlessly wasted resources and overloaded our landfills.

Look at a few of these statistics:

• One million dollars spent on rehabilitation, compared to the same amount spent on new construction yields between 5 and 9 more local construction jobs, creates 4.7 more new jobs elsewhere in the community and provides $107,000 more in community income. It also generates $34,000 more in retail sales. (Advisory Council on Historic Preservation)

• At the state level, one million spent on building rehabilitation created:
5 more jobs than $1 million manufacturing electronic equipment in California.
12 more jobs than $1 million manufacturing cars in Michigan.
29 more jobs than pumping $1 million worth of oil in Oklahoma.
22 more jobs than $1 million cutting timber in Oregon.
12 more jobs than $1 million processing steel in Pennsylvania.
8 more jobs than $1 million manufacturing textiles in South Carolina.
17 more jobs than $1 million in agriculture in South Dakota.
20 more jobs than $1 million mining coal in West Virginia.
(Donovan Rypkema, the Economics of Historic Preservation)

If we focused on rehabilitating our existing schools (and other public buildings), we would not only create more construction jobs, we would give our communities the stability that comes from shared experiences through generations.